This invention relates to an apparatus for separating dispersed phases from fluid mixtures, such as fluid mixtures comprising water in which finely dispersed oil droplets, solid contamination i.e., suspended solids, foam and sludge may be present.
It is know from British Patent Application No. 2,161,395 to utilize a fibrous bed coalescer to coalesce finely dispersed droplets to droplets of a larger size which can be separated from the carrier fluid in a fluid separation chamber. The known coalescer comprises a cluster of fibers which can be pulled into a substantially vertically oriented neck portion at the upper or lower end of a fluid separation chamber so as to create a bed of packed, but substantially stretched fibers in said neck portion.
A drawback of the known coalescer is that if the device is used for separating e.g. oil droplets from an aqueous carrier flow and the fibrous bed is located at the bottom of a fluid separation chamber solid contaminants could accumulate in the fibrous bed thereby increasing the speed of the fluid flowing through the remaining open channels and reducing the coalescence efficiency. If, on the other hand, the known separator is used to separate oil droplets from a carrier fluid having a lower density than oil and the fibrous bed is located at the top of the separation chamber than gas bulbs and foam may accumulate in the fibrous bed thereby blocking fluid flow through these channels and increasing the speed of the remaining open channels and reducing the coalescence efficiency.
An object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for separating dispersed phases from fluid mixtures having a fibrous bed which will not be sensitive to accumulation of solid debris, foam, or other contaminants in the bed and which requires less frequent cleaning of the fibrous bed than the known apparatus.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which can be used for separating a heavy portion such as a sludge or solid particles from a carrier liquid and separating simultaneously coalesced droplets of a low density fluid from the carrier fluid such that each of said phases can be separated in a continuous manner from the apparatus without requiring interruption of the fluid treating operations, even if said phases pass in slugs through the apparatus.